Hands-on With the Nvidia Shield Portable Gaming System

We get some hands-on time with the Android-based Nvidia Shield mobile gaming platform.

The most telling part of the Nvidia Shield is the faux-metal "shield" on the back of the screen. Remove it to reveal the serial number, put it back on to create a color contrast with the hulking black controller (or spend $20 to trick out the Shield with a plate in carbon fiber or black). And that's it. What's the point?

The same can be asked of the Shield itself.

I should admit that, besides a stupendous enthusiasm for MarioKart, I'm not a gamer. I grew up mostly not playing games, and those I did play were usually Tetris or Kirby's Pinball Land on my Game Boy Pocket. So I am not the target audience for a device that promises "the ultimate gaming and entertainment portable." Nevertheless, I tried to like this Android-based portable gaming ... thing. And in some ways I succeeded.

As promised, the Shield is quite powerful thanks to some hefty guts: Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor, a 5-inch 720p touch display, and surprisingly decent speakers. The physical device is ugly, but feels good in the hands despite its 1.28-pound body.

Rachel Z. Arndt

Rachel Z. Arndt

Compared to the Wii U controller, to which it is a rival at least in intent, the Nvidia is much more pleasant to use. The Shield is a near clone of a Microsoft Xbox controller and sports a flip-up screen that is easier to pay attention to than the Nintendo Wii U's between-the-controls screen. The screen itself is better, too—though, like the Wii U's, it makes touch interactions awkward. The Wii U is uncomfortable for the neck; the Shield is uncomfortable for the wrist. Touching a screen that's right in front of you isn't terribly natural (as anyone who has tried a Windows 8 laptop knows)—especially when you can use either the touchscreen or the traditional inputs (in this case, the controller).

Therein lies one of the main problems with the device: Android. Because the device is, most superficially and most obviously, an Android gaming device, it's necessarily meant for touch-driven games, at least for now. Not only are there few compelling Android games, but those that are well-designed are well-designed for touch more so than for traditional inputs. Or they sport mediocre design in both realms. Plus, which are you supposed to use? Both? Games that require touch and traditional video-game controls cause not just physical but intellectual distress. The buttons are closest to the fingers when holding the Shield, so button-driven navigation seems more natural. But the Android operating system is designed for touch, and the introduction of two sets of controls creates a lot of redundancy without a lot of convenience.

The games that work best are those that avoid touch entirely, usually because they're console games that have been adapted for the Shield. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, for instance, is a joy to play (as long as you're okay with all that violence and misogyny, which do translate wonderfully to the Shield). Classic console games such as Super Mario Brothers can be played with emulators, and they're usually great as well.

Rachel Z. Arndt

Rachel Z. Arndt

As is PC streaming, or so I am told. Given the right computer, router, and Wi-Fi network, you can stream games from your PC to the device. So if you're dying to play a PC game in a room where your PC isn't, or if you're just dying to use the comfortable controls of the Shield, you can—if you have the right setup, that is. PC streaming requires at least an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 graphics card, Windows 7 or 8, and, preferably, a dual-band router. If, like me, you have only two of those three requirements, you're stuck with what's available in the Google Play and Shield Stores (in the latter, games cost between nothing and $10, with most in the lower end of the price spectrum).

At $300, the Shield still seems a niche device. Android games don't attract too many dedicated gamers, and with smartphones that are nearly as powerful as the Nvidia's, even the fancy chip inside the Shield doesn't make it an especially tempting addition to the technophile's gadget lineup. On the other hand, within the ugly exterior lies a device that is fun in the way the Game Boy is fun.

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